One more for the road (team)? Playoff push for Roadrunners down to win-or-go-home game

After 74 games, the Tucson Roadrunners’ season comes down to one win-or-go-home battle Sunday afternoon.

After leading the Roadrunners to victory Friday night over the heavily favored Coachella Valley Firebirds to force a rubber match in the best-of-three first-round playoff series, Tucson’s MVP, Michael Carcone, said the Roadrunners played “desperate hockey.”

Now the Roadrunners will look to extend their season with the most desperate of games Sunday, for the third straight time at Coachella Valley, this time at 3 p.m.

“It’s gonna be desperate hockey,” Carcone said postgame Friday in an interview with Adrian Denny, the Roadrunners’ director of communications and broadcasting. “We just gotta get back to work.”

Should they upset the Firebirds, the Roadrunners will face the AHL regular-season champion Calgary Wranglers in the Pacific Division semifinals. That best-of-five series that would feature at least one game in the Old Pueblo.

But first things first.

“They’re the second-best team in the AHL for a reason, right?” Carcone said of Coachella Valley. “They’re not gonna give up, especially this time of year. So you know what? Whoever plays the full 60 (minutes) generally comes out with a win.

“We did a good job playing 60, and we got one more game left with these guys, so we gotta play another full 60.”

Tucson outshot Coachella Valley 46-27 in Game 1; the Firebirds had the edge in shots on goal in Game 2, 38-26. The Firebirds trailed 3-0 and 4-1 but cut the deficit with two third-period goals.

“We did a good job weathering their storm,” Tucson defenseman Steven Kampfer told Denny. “We know what they’re capable of, and we gotta be prepared for Game 3.”

Since their first regular-season meeting in early November, Tucson has gone 3-6-1-0 against the expansion Firebirds. Five of the games have been decided by one goal.

Coachella Valley had 103 points in the regular season compared to Tucson’s 69.

“This time of year, it doesn’t really matter the standing. Everything happens on the ice, and it’s only a best-of-three series, so it can happen quick,” Tucson center Jean-Sebastien Dea said before the series. “Hockey’s different in the playoffs. You never know what’s going to happen; you’re always one goal away from winning.”

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Tucson killed five of CV’s seven power plays in Friday’s win and held the Firebirds to 2 for 6 on the power play on Wednesday in the loss. The Roadrunners haven’t given up an even-strength goal to Coachella Valley in 108:25, since halfway through the first period of Game 1.

The Firebirds scored 3.57 goals per game, third best in the AHL, in the regular season.

“They got a great power play over there. That’s the strength of their team. So we shut that down pretty good (Friday),” Carcone said to Denny. “We just gotta stay with that and create offense any way we can and we’ll be in good shape on Sunday.”

Should they win, the Roadrunners would host playoff hockey — and at least one “white out” at Tucson Arena — for the first time since 2018.

“It would be awesome,” Dea said about potentially hosting playoff games and the impact the fans could have. “They’ve been really good lately, some good crowds. They’ve been supporting us all year, so it would be nice (to0 reward them with some playoff hockey here.”

Slap shots

The Roadrunners will again host a free watch party in Tucson for Game 3 at Main Event at 4700 S. Landing Way.

Tucson and Coachella Valley’s series is the only one in the Pacific Division to go the three-game distance. On Friday, the third-seeded Colorado Eagles beat the No. 6 Ontario Reign 6-4 to complete the sweep, and the fourth-seeded Abbotsford Canucks beat the No. 5 seed Bakersfield Condors 4-2 to advance after two games.

For the second round, the Pacific Division teams are reseeded, meaning Colorado and Abbotsford will play in the second round if Tucson beats Coachella Valley. If the Firebirds win, they would face the Eagles and the Canucks would play top-seeded Calgary.

In the Central and Atlantic divisions, both No. 5 seeds upset the No. 4 seeds in two-game sweeps, with the Rockford IceHogs topping the Iowa Wild, and the Hartford Wolf Pack knocking out the Springfield Thunderbirds.

The only first-round playoff series out of the North Division featured the Utica Comets sweeping the Laval Rocket in two games.

Attendance for Game 2 in Coachella Valley was 7,168, almost the Firebirds’ regular-season average of 7,478 but still lower than the 10,087 who went to the first game at Acrisure Arena in December when the Firebirds topped Tucson 4-3.